Suspended Twitter Accounts To Be Restored; Elon Musk

Web Desk — Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk says many previously suspended Twitter accounts will be allowed to return to the platform after a landslide of users responding to an informal poll by new management.

The announcement comes at a time when Musk is under severe pushback that his criteria for content moderation is subject to his personal whim, with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others.

“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week,” Musk tweeted, responding to the poll.

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, repeating a Latin adage meaning “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” that he has used when talking about other Twitter polls.

Out of 3.16 million respondents to Musk’s Wednesday poll question, 72.4 percent said Twitter should restore suspended accounts as long as they have not broken laws or engaged in “egregious spam”, Musk posted.

It was the same type of “yes/no” informal poll of Twitter users that Musk devised to decide in favour of reinstating former US president Donald Trump on the platform.

Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated on Saturday after a narrow majority of respondents supported the move.

A blanket amnesty for suspended accounts could potentially alarm government authorities that are keeping a close look at Musk’s handling of hateful speech since he bought the influential platform for $44 billion.

It could also spook Apple and Google, tech titans that have the power to ban Twitter from their mobile app stores over content concerns.

Trump was banned from the platform early last year for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential elections.